Lost Pokemon Tales
by Destiny777
Summary: This is a full OC story. It's also the first story I've uploaded here. No flames please, comments and founded criticism I'll be happy to have, note that my first language isn't English though, so there may be spelling errors, feel free to point them out!
1. Chapter 1

**Lost Pokemon Tales – Chapter 1**

"Thoom!" ... "Thoom!" Near Slateport city, a large passenger ship carrying at least five hundred paying costumers and one hundred and fifty crew members was about to reach its final destination. It originally came from the Kanto region and through the sea's Kanto region, went to the Johto region and eventually took it's long journey southwards towards the Hoenn region. A lot of the passengers on the ship were trainers hoping to find a new challenge in this so called "Hoenn" region but there were others as well. Some simply visiting the area for some fancy business deal or some taking a long, relaxing vacation in one of the most beautiful places on earth. The loud horn of the ship echoed throughout the town but most of the townsfolk would most likely be used to it as ships come and go in Slateport City.

A female voice echoed throughout the upper decks, apparently through a speaker of some kind. "Dear passengers. We are due to arrive in Slateport City in roughly fifteen minutes. The captain, we and Kanto Ship corp. Hope you will have an enjoyable stay in the Hoenn region and hope to see you again soon".

In one of the cabins of the ship, a trainer was packing his things and getting ready to set foot onto land. He apparently came from the Kanto region and after a long one month journey was finally getting ready to get off and begin whatever he wanted to begin. His cabin was fairly small but it fit his needs. There being just a small desk, a bed, a TV and a fridge for which you'd have to pay if you'd want to use it. He grabbed a medium sized but strange looking pokeball from the table. It had a purple color and it looked like it had strange engravings on its sides. Regardless of that, the trainer, a guy that looked like he was just below the age of 20, held it in front of him and pulled a smile.

"Looks like we finally made it. Don't know if you're ready but I'm betting you disliked staying in this little room just as much as I did..well..I don't know really..seeing as you don't have a body and all.." he laughed like a guy who liked his own jokes a little bit too much.

"Eh...Sir..". A female voice said to his right near the cabin's entrance.

He immediately looked to his right and dropped his laughter, staring at her in a moment of complete awkwardness.

Trainer: "...Ekhem.." He pulled the most serious face he could think of at the moment.

Girl: "Yes.. uhm.. Sir, the ship is about to arrive. All passengers are instructed to report themselves at the top of the deck." "Oh right...thanks. I'll be there in a moment". The trainer said to the woman. Unlike all the other trainers he had mostly stayed in his little cabin. Most of the other trainers were busy trying to best each other in pokemon battles but this trainer didn't really seem all that interested. He walked out of his cabin and headed towards the upper decks, anxious to see what Hoenn would look like.

Meaningwhile, somewhere north of Slateport city..

A girl came slowly walking off route 110 towards the towns entrance gates. She had dirt covering her clothes and grass stains on her legs, like she had been resting on the ground still wet from a rainstorm. Route 110 had been longer and harder to cross then it had looked like from the region map she bought at a small market store in Mauville city. The sun had finally broken through after a gray morning and the female trainer who looked like she had been in an area of solitude and stormy climates shook the dirt out of her hair and from her clothes, -or at least tried to- happy to see civilization after all that time of being alone. Well.. not completely alone, of course she would never go out there on her own if she didn't have her trusted partner with her. out of her somewhat ripped backpack, she took a small dimly shining ball, for a part white and for the other part red, the sheen wasn't as strong as the pokeballs you usually saw at the market store, but that didn't seem to mind her in the slightest. It was the only pokeball she had that actually contained something, true, she had never been an outstanding trainer, but there was more in life than just to hoard pokemon, so she thought..

Smiling, she put the old pokeball back in and slowly walked up to the gates of the city she'd been trying to reach for the past 2 weeks now.

The sea bordered the city of Slateport, it was well known for its shining white beaches and all around market, not even to mention the harbor that had over a thousand of original sailing ships in them. The long dirt path with its endless fields of tall grass and tiny rivers bordered the other side of Slateport city. The city itself was skewed, the beach part was of course lowest, making the entrance gate a great lookout over the entire city.

In the eyes of the girl, the houses and boats looked so small from a distance, she could see sailing boats and ferry's slowly pass the shore near the beach. Breathing in deeply, she made a run for it, rushing off in the middle of the streets with seemingly no special destination in mind other than to get into the city...

Finally, after all this time the ship had finally docked and a plank was being lowered so the passengers could get off and do whatever they felt like doing in this region. By the time the trainer finally got to the upper decks most of the passengers were gone already and the crew was busy unloading all sorts of boxes, goods and what not. He walked up to a railing and looked out over the city. "Whoa..that looks amazing. I think we made a good choice coming here." the trainer said while glancing at the pokeball he still held in his hand. "Well..I'm sure it was worth the long trip anyhow! Let's go."

He directed his attention towards the plank ahead and smiled at the attendants that were coming to see everyone off. "Have a nice stay in Hoenn Sir, We hope to see you soon." One of the attendants said while the trainer passed. The trainer quickly responded with a "Yeah! Thanks!" before he rushed down the plank onto the dock. It was quite a large city, larger than what we was used to anyway back in Kanto, and his eyes obviously were filled with amazement. "Well..where should I go first.." suddenly he heard the most foul, awful sound he could possibly imagine..a growl comparable to that of a Charmander.. and it seemed to be coming from his stomach. He rubbed a hand over his belly and scratched the back of his head with the other. "Uh..I think I'm hungry..I bet the fish they prepare here is great! Well..that answers the previous question, Let's go find a restaurant!" He said with a big smile on his face. With a determined look on his eyes he quickly made his way towards the town, his quest: To find the most delicious piece of fish he'd ever tasted!

The female trainer had changed from running to walking, to simply wandering around. There was so much to see, she took a mental note to go see the ocean soon too, maybe even before it would grow dark outside..

"Where'd I sleep though..?" she murmured to herself. Looking around, she was surrounded by buildings and to the left of her was a small shopping district. She knew no one and had never been in Slateport before, so the best idea seemed to just wander about and look for a nice spot to spend the coming night. She could already see the bleach moon in the sky, the sun was nearing the edge of the endless ocean horizon little by little.

Passing store windows, she looked at the prize of a menu on the other side of the glass *Expensive...* she thought. But not nearly had she started to turn around to continue her search, when she realized how empty her stomach felt. With a look of utter annoyance on her face she went off to look for a place to eat at, if possible as cheap as she could find. Her hand graced the small pocket on the right side of her short-sleeved jacket, she could feel barely any coins in there, which meant she would probably have to do some side jobs again to still have something to live from.

With her hands inside her pockets, she walked onwards, on her way to what would hopefully bring her a place to stay at and a full stomach.

At the same time, the trainer had just found a restaurant that had gained his interest. It had a very unique, pokemon-like style and a menu had been printed on a paper that was attached to the restaurant's windows.

Just as he was about to inspect it, he heard a loud, grumbling voice from behind him. "Hey, Kid!" he turned around and found the voice strangely familiar.. While onboard the ship, the trainer didn't really involve himself with any of the battles that were happening on the decks. And while most of the trainers were busy competing, this one simply didn't care all that much. This apparently got him on the bad side of one of the ship's crew members that had challenged him (whose offer to battle he had shrugged off earlier) while he was getting himself some food in the mess hall.

"I've seen you keeping a pokeball around and that means you've got a pokemon and that means you've got a pokemon and -that- means you gotta battle!" the guy said. He seemed to be in his late twenties but constant exposure to salty sea air didn't seem to do his voice any good.

The trainer responded with an obviously annoyed tone "I told you before..I don't wanna battle..All I want to do is get something to eat because I'm sta-.." The trainer got interrupted before he could finish his sentence. "Yeah..guessed you were gonna say that. Well you're gonna battle me or you're gonna get really hurt.". The guy grabbed a pokeball and threw it on the ground, releasing a Raticate. "Go Raticate, teach this kid a lesson with a hyperfang!". The Raticate responded and immediately leaped towards the trainer to perform his attack.

A few streets away, the girl trainer got passed by several people who were nervously walking away from the direction she was heading in. Confused, she stared at the fast disappearing amount of people on the streets.

*What's going on here? I wonder why everyone left so suddenly.. not a minute ago the place was crowded.*

She shrugged and walked onwards, windows on both sides of the street were being closed and lights went off. "That is odd, it's nowhere near time to go asleep already, why are the people acting so strangely?".

Her pace had slowed down a little, now that it was quiet out on the streets, there was something that made her slow down and get her guard up. In the distance she could hear someone shouting in a raspy voice, curiousness got the better of her and she wandered off towards where the sounds were coming from. She had no wish to reveal herself to some kind of problems, but she just couldn't help but sneak a peek at what was going on out there. A large stone wall blocked the path to where the sounds were coming from, looking up, she decided the wall was too tall to climb over. Looking around for a way to get past the concrete wall she spotted the tough-looking branches of an old ivy plant against a corner in the wall. She went over to the corner and tried the strength of the branches by pulling it hard, it seemed to hold. Slowly and carefully she pulled herself up along the branches, climbing towards the edge of the wall. Luckily, the plant held out long enough for her to pull herself up and swing her legs over the edge, though her knee got scraped a little in the process.

She sat herself atop the wall, looking down, there was a staple of flour sacks below her to the right side, she'd get off easily. Looking up she noticed the source of the sounds she had come for, it looked like some sailor guy from her view, talking to another, smaller guy, which she couldn't get a clear look at since the sailor was blocking her view.

Curious to what would happen, she stayed put and watched the scene unfolding before her.

The trainer gasped in pain. Just before the Raticate could make a frontal attack, he leaped out of the way, but the sharp teeth of the pokemon still made a clean cut across his right leg just before he could avoid the attack completely. He fell on his chest and looked up at the sailor type. "Damnit that hurts..Hey! Using pokemon to attack people is against the law you know!" he shouted. The sailor type showed a grin in response, quite cliché, but he did it nonetheless.

"If that's your attitude you aint gonna come far in this region!" The sailor looked at his Raticate and shouted another command. "Come on Raticate, time to show him who's boss. Hyperfang!"

In a small instant the trainer grabbed his strange pokeball and released a pokemon right in the path of where the Raticate was going to make another strike. Within a single moment after the pokeball had landed on the ground the Raticate was send flying backwards and a veil of smoke surrounded the area where the Pokeball had landed. The trainer let out a sigh of relief and slowly pulled himself back on his feet. He directed his gaze towards the small puff of smoke that was now slowly starting to fade away, revealing the Pokemon that hid underneath. Something that looked like smoke, it was still thick, but it looked like a ghost type pokemon. "Thanks. Okay.. you wanna battle?" He said while directing his attention towards the sailor again.

The trainer looked at his summoned pokemon. The puff of smoke had now almost completely vanished and it revealed the looks of a certain pokemon..a pokemon that looked somewhat familiar to a Ghastly. "Rei!" obviously due to his tone of voice he seemed to be addressing his pokemon "Payback!".

A large grin appeared on the Gastly's face and a shadowy aura covered his round body, releasing in a ball-shaped energy attack in the Raticate's direction.

Was there a pokemon battle going on? She could hear the growls of a Raticate, leaning sideways she tried to see past the sailor, the other guy had fallen for some reason.. For a moment she wondered if she should help the guy, just then, the guy threw a pokeball and a cloud of smoke surrounded the site. She almost lost her balance on the wall, but managed to stay on top. Looking up in confusion, she saw that the boy had stood up again, in front of him was a ghost-like pokemon she had not seen before.

It had just become more interesting, it was rare that she got to see other trainers battle each other, she herself had avoided encounters as much as possible, which left her with not much experience as a trainer at all. She knew how most trainers would usually battle like their life depended on it, loudly claiming that they'd somewhere in the near future would beat the regional elite four and receive physical proof in the form of the national record book that they were the strongest trainers of our time. Many trainers held on to that dream, every village or city had countless young trainers each year again, heading out to become a so called 'pokemon master'. The girl was a trainer, yes. Even though her least favorite thing being battling, she was still intrigued by the battle before her.

The boy had finally decided to attack back and his pokemon followed his orders without question. She decided to stick around and see who would win.

For a moment there was complete silence where the fight was taking place. The Raticate had -just- managed to dodge the attack from the trainer's Ghastly, but it seemed that the area where the attack of said Ghastly had struck had simply vaporized, leaving a relatively medium sized crater where the ball of energy landed. Larger than the Raticate in any case. The sailor twitched in response of his Raticate almost being fried. "...Okay, now you done it-..Y-..you're gonna pay for this-!" Before -he-, this time, could finish his sentence the trainer interrupted him by giving another command to his pokemon.

Obviously he was not at all paying attention to the sailor guy, but was instead intent on finishing this battle as soon as possible. "Rei, use your sucker punch attack. And don't stop until they see some sense and leave us alone because I'm STARVING!" He said in a frustrated tone. Following the trainer's orders, the Ghastly disappeared in a cloud of smoke, only to appear right behind the Raticate and giving him a headbutt the Raticate probably soon wouldn't forget. The Raticate was once more send flying backwards, but this wasn't the end of the Gastly's attack. Before the Raticate could come to a complete stop, the Ghastly repeated the trick, appearing in the area where the Raticate would land and delivering a shadowy strike that would send him flying against the wall of the restaurant.

The Ghastly looked at the Raticate, and, deciding the battle was over, made his way towards his trainer's side. The sailor type rushed towards his Raticate and knelt down beside him, looking at him with desperation. "Raticate! Come on! Get up..GGAAAAAAHH.." He then directed an angry glare in the trainer's direction. "OKAY! PLAY TIME IS OVER!" He shouted while reaching in his pockets. What he grabbed was unclear for a moment. Retrieving his hand from his pockets the Trainer now saw him holding three other Pokeballs in his hands, and, without hesitation the sailor threw the three balls on the ground, releasing the Pokemon that held them. From left to right they seemed to be; Staryu, Starmie, Lickitung and a big, mean looking Blastoise. The sailor got back on his feet and directed his gaze fully towards the trainer "Hmpf. You're dead, kid. Better say your prayers.".

The sailor was clearly cheating, even with her limited experience she knew that using more than 2 pokemon at once was against the national battle rules. The boy had only the ghost pokemon to defend himself, it looked like an unfair battle. She retrieved her pokeball from her backpack, gripping it tightly. If the boy would get into serious trouble, she'd step in, even if there wasn't much she could do.

"Blastoise! Hydropump!" the sailor yelled at his pokemon. The fight was really getting started now, but it seemed kinda hopeless for the younger trainer. He grimaced at the situation, seeing his Ghastly being blown away by the Blastoises' powerful Hydropump attack. "So you're gonna cheat to win huh?" the trainer yelled at the sailor. The trainer quickly restored his attention on his Ghastly which was slowly getting up again. The grin on the Gastly's face still seemed to be a grin, but it was obvious the pokemon was getting annoyed now. The trainer ran to the side of his pokemon and turned, fixating his sight on the sailor that he was fighting.

The trainer looked at his Ghastly and though he didn't say anything, there seemed to be a mutual understanding for something. It is known by most people that ghost and psychic type pokemon communicate with their masters through telepathy so this might've been the case.

The sailor on the other hand shouted his commands to his pokemon as loud as he could possibly do. "Like I said kid, you're dead, game over! Staryu, Starmie! Water gun! Lickitung! Surf and finish him off with a Hydropump Blastoise!". Within a second the pokemon followed their master's command and leaped forward to perform their instructed move!

They got closer..

And closer..

AND closer...


	2. Chapter 2

**Lost Pokemon Tales – Chapter 2**

The sailor his commands as loud as he could possibly do. "Like I said kid, you're dead, game over! Staryu, Starmie! Water gun! Lickitung! Surf and finish him off with a Hydropump Blastoise!". Within a second the pokemon followed their master's command and leaped forward to perform their instructed move!

They got closer..

And closer..

AND closer...

And at this moment, time almost seemed to stand still for a second..the trainer shouting his lungs out as he gave a single command to his Ghastly. "NOW!". The second the trainer gave the command, the Ghastly shrouded himself in a purple hue, collecting power which was now surging through his floating body and just as the four pokemon got in range to deliver their attacks, the Ghastly unleashed the pure, dark, energy. Firing a single Shadowball attack towards the Starmies inner crystal, shattering it and leaving the pokemon around it stunned by the small shockwave of the blast.

The purple hue that first appeared around the Ghastly was now spreading all over the battlefield, creating a thin purple cloud which made it a little bit harder to see..Giving the scene once more a moment of complete silence as the two trainers waited for the purple hue to lift so that they could inspect the damage with their own eyes.

Slowly, the female trainer let herself down from the wall, landing without complications on the stapled sacks of flour beneath her. The walls around her provided shadows and enough hiding space if she chose not to show herself. With the cold wall of concrete behind her, she knew there was no way she would get back on that wall, unnoticed. The old pokeball she was still holding in her right hand shook lightly, the girl wondered if she should just walk off, the boy seemed capable of handling his own problems fair enough. But the little voice inside her head told her to stay.

The sun was nearing the edge in the ocean now, the bleach moon in the sky lost its blue hue bit by bit as the sky high up was growing darker. Very faint, the first stars could be seen, as tiny glitters in the sky. How long had she been here to watch the battle between two people she didn't know? Her hunger had been momentarily forgotten, but now that she thought about it, maybe it hadn't been a wise idea to stay put, instead of finding something to eat. She could forgot getting into an hotel now around this time, cities like these never had spaces left after 6 in the evening.

She sighed heavily.

*I'll probably have to use my old camping equipment again... unless there's a pokemon center nearby.*

The battling pokemons were still going at it, the ghost type had used a special ability, so it seemed. Purple dust was blocking the pokemons from view and the sailor was spewing out insults as he apparently didn't like to be out of control. Listening to the ranting sailor, she noticed she was still standing there, she had wanted to head out to find some food, but her curiosity got the better of her and her legs didn't obey her urge to go get some food. She wanted to see what happened, drawn by her curious nature, she hid herself partly behind the concrete wall and waited..

Though the purple hue still was present, it slowly started to fade due to the fact that strong winds often were present in a sea-side town such as this one. While there still was time, the trainer ran towards his Ghastly and grabbed his pokeball, kneeling down and activating the mechanism on the ball, storing his Ghastly inside. "Good job Rei." He whispered to himself. He quickly got on his feet again and glanced behind him one more time before making a timely escape through an alley next to the restaurant.

Just as the trainer disappeared from sight, a powerful wind blew away whatever dust still remained. It revealed the Starmie which lay in a critical condition. It's core had been completely shattered by the Shadowball attack and the sailor was kneeling down next to the pokemon, it looked like his head was going to explode due to anger. He grabbed two pokeballs and retrieved the two pokemon which had fainted during the battle. His other three pokemon still remained however and the immobilization effect which had held them earlier seemed pretty much gone.

"Hmpf. How could you stupid pokemon let him get away?" The sailor shouted. He had obviously noticed that the trainer he had been fighting wasn't exactly here anymore. He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the harbor, and the direction where the sun was going down. "We'll look for him later..no use trying to find that brat in the dark." He said with a confident tone while grabbing three more pokeballs to store his remaining pokemon in. And with that said and done, he left the scene, heading in the direction of the harbor.

By now, the battlefield clearly had some scars of battle. The concrete of the restaurant seemed to be slightly damaged at some points due to the battle and small craters surrounded the area as well. As for the restaurant, it looked deserted and closed. Most of the people there had probably evacuated the area while the battle was taking place. The strong wind which had been felt earlier was increasing now and the sky showed signs of an upcoming storm. It was pretty obvious which alley the trainer took to escape though, and while the sailor hadn't seen it, the trainer had dropped, probably lost, a mysterious looking badge where he was previously standing. Regardless of that though, the trainer was nowhere to be seen and like the sailor had already picked up, it was getting dark fast..

The female trainer didn't say anything, the battle had been over so suddenly, the small clearing was now empty. The wind had picked up speed, long grass growing between the concrete wall and the pavement were waving on the winds irregular pace, the salty air of the sea being carried far inland. This sort of wind was very common at the shore, big amounts of cumulonimbus cloud be spotted high above the ocean. The sun had finally reached its setting destination at the horizon, the sky turned a bright orange and slowly changed into a deep crimson, but between the deep dark blue high above and the crimson red at the horizon, it looked like there were so many colors in between, the sky itself had turned into a rainbow.

She still hadn't moved since she decided to stay and watch the battle between the two unknown trainers, she was just standing here, gawking at the beautiful sunset. Twilight had always been her favorite time of the day..

The winds brushed her hair lightly, today was exceptionally beautiful, especially after the long trip on route 110, it had been raining almost all the way.

The sun gave off bright rays of light and just then, before the sun had completely went under, something shiny caught her attention. There was something on the ground, reflecting the sun's rays. She might've missed the tiny item if it had been a few more inches to the left, for only a few strokes of light hit the small clearing. She went over to the glittering item on the ground and bent over to pick it up. It Looked like a coin at first, since it was perfectly round and had a smooth surface. It was cold to the touch, she could feel carved patterns on the backside though. When she turned it around, she confirmed it was a piece of flat metal, the only thing that made it more than just a piece of metal, shining in the sun, was that it had been waxed with purple coloring and had an organized pattern that made it look like a small picture. A picture of what though, it wasn't quite clear. In the middle, there was a small piece of crystal attached, it might be an important item.

"This... might this be what I think it is?"

"Could this be a gymbadge...?"

The girl trainer looked up, the sun had disappeared already and the streets were now basking in its afterglow, the street lights had popped on without her noticing it. She held the small badge closer to her face, she had never seen a gymbadge before, hadn't even dared to try and challenge a gymleader, she didn't need that kind of attention, didn't like big publics and crowds in general. But still, here she was, in what was probably the second most crowded city in the entire region of Hoenn. She turned the coin-like badge in her hand several times and then closed her hand tightly around it.

*I guess I should at least try to look for the guy, he might've went through a hard time getting it, gymleaders are pushover after all..*

She put the badge in a pocket of her backpack and closed it off with a zipper. Looking around for a few moments, she tried to remember where the trainer had run off to, then she shrugged and just went down the street. Maybe it was better to get some sleep first, no use searching for a boy she barely knew in the dark in a city this big.

*Getting something edible would be nice too...*

Her stomach rumbled loudly in agreement with her thoughts. Sighing, she continued onwards down the now dark street that had only few lanterns on the sides to light her path.

The trainer let out a sigh and glanced behind him, trying to determine whether he had actually finally lost his attacker or not. He had been running non-stop for fifteen minutes now and took all sorts of strange paths to ensure he could not be followed that easily. Now however he apparently found himself at the end of the alleyway he had been following and it looked like a dead end as well. No wall to climb over or anything, just a large, concrete wall belonging to a house. He closed his eyes for a moment and let himself drop on the ground, resting his back against the concrete wall he was facing just a second ago. Now he finally had some time to inspect his surroundings..the alley he found himself in was incredibly small in width, three meters at most with trashcans and other garbage making it even smaller. He could barely see the sky here, with walls surrounding him on all sides and buildings blocking his view everywhere he looked. The only thing he could see was a collection of dark clouds far up in the sky..and the trainer had a slight feeling it was going to rain soon.

He inspected the wound he had gotten on his leg earlier; Though the bleeding had stopped it still seemed to sting a bit. The Raticate had made a clean cut across the lower part of his leg but he was lucky he avoided the main attack else it might've turned out to be much worse than just a small cut. He moved his hand over to his pockets and grabbed the dark, engraved pokeball. Placing it on the ground beside him. The clothes the trainer wore were quite standard..just some jeans, a blouse with its sleeves rolled up and a black shirt underneath. On his back he carried a black, medium-sized backpack which held some basic supplies such as water and so on.

*..I think we lost them Rei.* He thought. Though he didn't say anything, he knew his ghost-type pokemon could read his thoughts through telepathy, even from within his pokeball. He did enjoy to simply talk to his pokemon though..mainly because he himself wouldn't feel so alone if he did as well..but at times like these it was perfect, due to the fact that he was completely exhausted, and his pokemon probably was as well due to the energy it had used during the battle. *..I'm kinda missing Lavender Town now...* He looked up at the sky and sighed..it was getting darker and darker by the second, until even the last ray of sunlight had completely disappeared. There was no lighting in the alley he was in either..so the only kind of light he could see came from the windows of the buildings around him. *Well..at least we're used to being in the dark..in more than one way..* he snickered to himself..

He was glad he could still laugh about the situation he was in.

*I knew we should've finished that guy off on the ship though..sorry. I didn't mean for us to get into a fight. I'm like the only pokemon trainer that doesn't like to go around challenging everyone to a pokemon battle..I bet you I'm like the strangest trainer there is, Rei.* He placed a hand on his belly after it gave another growl "I'm really hungry..I doubt anything's open around this time though.." he said in a low tone of voice. Even now however it echoed throughout the alleyway. He gave another glance at the sky above him and continued "..And I think we should find some shelter too..I bet you it's going to rain soon and I know you hate bad weather.". He grabbed the pokeball and held it in front of him "..I can release you from that ball though..Doubt anyone's still out now. Shouldn't cause any problems right?" He said to himself. He moved his hand over to the small button on the pokeball, releasing his Ghastly in front of him.

Though the ghost-type pokemon would seem frightening to most, this one obeyed his trainer without much difficulty. What bond they had was a mysterious one, but it looked like some sort of mutual respect and understanding they had for each other, while still keeping a healthy friendship. The trainer gave a smile in the Gastly's direction and pulled himself on his feet again. He reached a hand inside of his pocket for no other reason than it just being another habit. While he did that however, he froze.

"Uuh..Rei." He said with a uncertain voice. "...Did you grab our Marsh badge? Because uh...it's not on my belt." Every time he reached into his pockets, he could feel the metallic texture of the badge on his skin, but all he felt now was the structure of his pants and belt, nothing more. His voice was getting desperate now. Whether or not the Ghastly had answered obviously couldn't be heard in words. "Well uh..I don't have it eith-..."

...Wait!

He remembered something! "Damnit..I knew I felt something strange! The badge must've slipped while I was getting your pokeball out of my pocket..." ... "DAMNIT!" he shouted out in anger. "It took us like forever to get that marsh badge from Sabrina. Do you remember how beat up we were after we finally managed to put her pokemon under your sleep ability?" He grimaced at the thought but quickly continued "..Wait, it's still gotta be there.."

He focused his attention on his Ghastly, speaking in a dead serious tone "You go ahead Rei, you don't get obstructed by these walls at least..I'll be there as fast as possible okay?". The Ghastly seemed to make a nodding gesture and disappeared out of sight. The trainer too, having caught his breath before, ran out of the alley. Though he couldn't retrace his steps, he knew which way would lead him to the place he used to be. Or well..so he hoped. He was going in the opposite direction however, even though if he didn't know that yet. This path however might miraculously lead him to the road the female trainer had taken earlier, He going exactly in the opposite direction she seemed to be going..

The girl trainer wandered forth down the dimly lit street, which most likely would go all the way down to the beach that this city was so well known for. Apart from the street lanterns, only the windows on the different sized houses provided light. She was used to walking alone, but there was just something eerie about walking alone in the dark. The girl shivered, her right hand still hold on to the old pokeball, which was in its small form, gripping it just a little tighter to assure herself she was just paranoid and had nothing to actually worry about. Just then, she felt something wet drop on her elbow, startled, she turned around to face.. nothing. She looked around confused.

*Did I just imagine that? Or maybe.. w-was it a ghost?*

Frantically, she looked around, the paranoia taking her over for a moment. Then, another drop fell onto her hand and one on her cheek, slowly, it started drizzling. Quizzically, she looked up to the sky, but had to close her eyes almost immediately, cause raindrops hit her eyes. She shook the rain out of her hair, grumbling.

"That's just like me, mistaking rain for a mouthwatering ghost?"

She cursed herself for taking silly conclusions, of course it was rain, what else to expect with such threatening and dark looking clouds? The rain went from drizzling to thick drops that could drench you in a minute. The girl started to run, with her backpack held above her head to try to at least stay dry for some part. Of course it had to be her luck again.. or rather, the lack of it. With no place to stay at and with all restaurants already closed, she sure was in for a hell of a bad mood this night.

Lights behind the windows died one after the other, now only the street lamps were there to cast a light on her path. Puddles had already started to form, the lanterns were only partly reflected on their rain-broken surfaces. Finally, she saw a medium sized tree up ahead, quickly she hid under it, saving her from most of the rain. She sighed, relieved that she at least had found a place where she could hide from the rain until it got less intense or stopped altogether. The sound of splashing footsteps came into earshot and the female trainer had just turned around to see who was running up the hill, when the person had already passed tree she was hiding under, halfway. It was clearly a male though, even though she could only see his backside, which was quickly disappearing from the site as well.

"That guy can run fast." She said, talking to no one in particular.

"I wonder why someone would go out running, during a rainstorm?"

Before she knew it, the guy had disappeared, running up the street in the direction she had just come from, taking the sounds of splashing footsteps with him in the dark...

The trainer ran as fast as he possibly could. The battle with Sabrina still fresh in his memory. Though he had won his badge, he knew all too well that he and his Ghastly only won due to the elemental advantage his ghost type had against Sabrina's psychic type pokemon, and of course the fact that Sabrina and her pokemon shared a psychic link, which meant that once Sabrina's pokemon were put under the Gastly's sleep spell, she'd be as well. His clothes were almost completely soaked now but that didn't really seem to be on his mind at the moment. All he cared for was getting his badge back..even if he'd have to beat up the sailor he battled previously.

He wasn't afraid of the dark. He originally came from a little town called Lavender Town in Kanto. One could see it as -the- ghost town ( in a literal sense ) of the world, and once you'd gotten used to that, no lighting or a dark area wouldn't be a problem either. *I hope Rei managed to find it..* He repeated to himself in his head while he was running.

However..this didn't seem to be the case. Once he arrived at what previously was the battlefield, the only thing he saw was mud. The craters that had formed in the ground due to the battle were slowly washing away as well..leaving very little evidence of a battle at all. His Ghastly approached him, He of course having arrived at the scene a lot faster than the trainer did, and the answer he carried wasn't a good one. "...You didn't find anything either, huh?". the trainer said with a sad tone in his voice...

He remained silent for a moment..

"..."

He let out a sigh and turned around, in the direction he came. "...Let's just..find some place to rest and get dry..we'll buy some food in the morning...". Not only was he drenched now, but muddy as well due to the constant running. His pants being completely covered in mud and his hands as well. Slowly but surely he started walking in the direction where he came from.. and after two hours of searching he had finally found a place to rest..


	3. Chapter 3

**Lost Pokemon Tales – Chapter 3**

The sun's rays climbed up slowly from behind the buildings, leaving spots of light on the pavement and concrete walls. Morning set in as the sun passed the barrier of water, coloring the few clouds that were left from the night before a soft orange with a pink hue. What was left of the rain had gathered unto the roofs of buildings and the tree leafs. The sun was rising to go his usual round across the sky, it wasn't long before the entire city was basking in its morning glows.

A lone raindrop had become too heavy to keep hanging on the underside of the leaf it had fallen on earlier, sparkling in the sunlight, it let loose and dropped all the way down, unto the nose of a girl. The girl stirred, groaning, she moved to lie on her other side, at the base of the tree she had been sleeping under. The light had found her eyes and was determined to wake her up, the girl opened her eyes slightly, to find out that there was something very bright shining in her eyes.

"arrggh.. whut..? What time is it..?" She muttered groggily.

Her memories were vague, she lifted her hand over her eyes to try and see what it was that awakened her. Her eyes focused, her surroundings started to gain physical form. She seemed to be surrounded by buildings..? Feeling down for her bed, she found pavement made of natural coast rocks. Finally realizing where she must be, she looked up. The medium sized tree she had hid under to get protection from the rain the other night, was still there.

*Can't remember falling asleep here.. or, did I?*

Memories from the other night came rushing back in pieces. She remembered sitting under the tree, since it just wouldn't stop raining. She had curled up as much as she could to stay warm, after some point she must've closed her eyes. She had been thinking about home, though her exact thinking process had been lost due to fatigue, the sound of falling rain had been accompanied at some point by a more heavy splashing. Maybe someone had passed the tree she had been hiding under, but not seen her? It was dark after all, but for all she knew it might've been her imagination too.

One look at her outfit told her she definitely needed a bath and a change of clothes. She was even muddier than before from sleeping under the tree, it felt like she had bruises all over the place.

"That's hopefully the last time I have to sleep under a tree.."

Standing up, she noticed just how sore she was.

"Yep, DEFINITELY the last time.."

Rubbing her back, she shifted her clothing back in place and roamed around in the largest pocket in her backpack. Pulling out a yellow device that could've been mistaken for a pimped mobile cell phone, exclusively for this region, a pokénav. She flipped the yellow device open, rubbing the screen dry when a raindrop landed on it. The time read '6:07 AM'. With another loud groan she shut the device again and threw it back in her backpack.

"Seriously? Whyyyy... this early.. grumble.. arghh..."

People weren't even out on the streets yet, they'd probably be up soon though. The girl trainer looked around, it was probably a good idea to go find a secluded river, no use trying to get into any sort of hotel or motel when you where dripping with mud. The sun had now finally reached the point where the whole city of Slateport was bathing in light, stumbling sounds from inside the houses told her that the people who had to work early would get out on the streets soon.

Trying to dust off as much of the still somewhat wet mud as she could, she disappeared into one of the many alleys. A human-made canal would probably do too, as long as no one was watching of course... It wouldn't be long now before the day officially begun, a small flock of Taillow sang their morning melodies as they each announced the start of a new day in the second most crowded place in Hoenn...

*...Squeek...*

*...Crack...*

*...SQUEEK! CRACK!*

...The trainer opened his eyes..

"..."

"!" The trainer yelled! "THAT IS NOT FUNNY REI!". The trainer put the palm of his hand against his forehead..sighing deeply. Around the same time the female trainer woke up, this one did too. He had found shelter last night after over two hours of searching and he found his shelter to be an abandoned house that was seemingly heading for deconstruction..or some kind of renovation. The trainer figured that no one would mind him spending the night there..or so he hoped.

Though it was quite large, it was obvious it was in need of repairs, with rotten planks everywhere and the feeling that the building could collapse at any given second. It sort of had the feeling of a haunted house to it and, being the jester the trainer's Gastly sometimes was, he took the privilege of waking up the trainer by making some squeaking and cracking noises, and then appearing right before the trainer's face while pulling his tongue out and making a funny face.

The trainer slowly pulled himself on his feet, groaning and cracking his back while rubbing his eyes as well. Though he couldn't see anything last night, he clearly saw that the house had a ground and a first floor, with about five rooms on each floor. The trainer had slept last night in what seemed to be a kitchen..though any furniture that hadn't rotten or broken down was in the process at least, so the only indication of it being a kitchen were the cold tiles that were placed on it's floor, and of course, the furnace along with a sink and an old fridge. And the effect of sleeping on stone tiles was clearly there as well..his back felt like a plank!

*..Ugh..I've got a headache..* he thought to himself *..It feels like I've only had two hours of sleep or something..probably true as well. Don't know at which time I went to be-..uhm..tile last night though, wasn't there a time function on my pokédex?* he walked over to his pants which he had folded out over a chair. He was completely soaked last night and in order for his clothes to dry, he took them off and hung them over everything he could find; old doors, a window, a chair and so on. He reached into his backpack, which lay on a chair next to his pants, and grabbed a relatively old model of a pokédex out of it. It was a typical one really; red color, made out of some sort of plastic along with metal and glass on its display, a small antenna on its top and the ability to flip it open like a book.

"..Hm..around six." He said while having his pokédex opened. He didn't have that many entries, around thirty now. With of course, only one catch. Or so it seemed...the only pokemon the trainer had ever used was his Gastly, and he had his personal reasons for only journeying with one pokemon...He believed that if pokemon could become stronger by training with humans, focusing all your attention on one would make him far stronger and show his potential more than dividing that attention onto six pokemon, and though he wasn't the best trainer of all time or something, his single ghost-type pokemon had given him the edge over a lot of battles.

*I wonder when he's going to evolve..* the trainer thought to himself with a smile on his face, watching his Gastly float around the house while remembering all the things that they had already gone through so far. *..Maybe losing that badge wasn't so bad after all..besides, we beat Sabrina once..now we just gotta get strong enough to beat her without any tricks right?* he once more thought. Though it was obvious his Gastly wasn't really paying attention, as he seemed to be enjoying rushing through the walls of this building a little bit too much.

The trainer turned his sight over to his pants again, trying to determine if any wet spots still remained due to the rain. Though it still was wet..it wasn't soaked any more, and this would hold true for most of his clothing as well. *Better than nothing at least* He thought...and better than going through the streets naked as well, he'd say.

Having put his underpants and pants on, he noticed the dirt stains that covered his pants, shoes and his socks as well. He figured that he should at least try to clean his clothes somewhere in the city, to prevent nasty looks from other people in the town. *..Gotta be a dry cleaner around here somewhere, right?* He thought. He still was hungry as well..he hadn't eaten anything last night and the food on the ship wasn't exactly tasty either. "Come on Rei!" he shouted throughout the building so the Gastly would hear him. "We're going into town, you'd best get into your pokeball if you don't want to give everyone a heart attack!".

With that said, he pulled his shoes on and got ready to move out.

The girl trainer bent down behind a fountain, there had been no rivers or canals to be found, or any sort of fresh water source at all, luckily she had discovered a big fountain located on what normally would be a crowded square. Looking around frantically, she discovered that she was still alone. She dipped her hands into the cold water stream and braced herself for what would come. After a small moment of hesitation, she threw the cold water in her face and started to splash herself until she was thoroughly soaked, her body as well as her clothes. Shivering, she tried not to think about the cold as she started to scrub the mud off of her and the twigs and leafs out of her foul-blond hair. Throwing the occasional look over her shoulder, to see if no one saw her washing herself in the freaking public fountain..

When she was done, her skin was slightly red from the hasty scrubbing, but her hair was now lighter and lit up in soft gold when the sun fell on it. Now that she wasn't covered in mud and grass stains anymore, she felt a lot better, almost like she just lost 2 pounds, which was probably true.. 2 pounds of dirt. The girl stood up, wringing out her clothes in the process. She pulled a light blue towel from her backpack and started to dry herself off. Happy with the result, she bent over slightly to watch her reflection in the clear water of the fountain. Her hair was kind of ruffled now, but nothing a good brush couldn't fix. Her reflection smiled at her, yep, everything would be alright now!

A small Taillow had landed on the top stone of the fountain, watching her from a small distance. The girl looked up, for a moment there was utter silence and nothing happened. The Taillow chirped at her and proceeded to fly off into the sky until it was too small to see. The girl trainer watched the small bird go. Standing up, she walked off at a slow pace, there was no use rushing for nothing.

As she went, more and more people got on the streets, some in business suits, others in casual clothing, or all dressed up.. maybe it was Sunday? A small group of kids came running out a door, with small backpacks on and lunchbags in hand, off to school. The girl looked up, the sky was cloudless, a fierce blue as far as the eye could see. With her hands in her pockets, she started wondering about home..

*Had they seen it...?*

*Maybe they hadn't noticed at all..*

Stopping in her tracks, the girl let out a heavy sigh. Right in front of her was the cities pokemon center, which she hadn't noticed yet. Almost robotic, she stumbled in, for the moment not caring where she ended up at...

The trainer still was kinda tired..He hadn't slept much at all and his muscles ached as well..probably due to the constant running he went through the entire night. Walking out of the main district, the Trainer had encountered a large, wooden, brown colored building with quite a traditional look to it. Kinda like the ones he was used to in Kanto and Lavender Town. A large, wooden sign plate stood in front of the house, clearly stating "Pokemon Fan Club and Part-Time Inn, 5 coins a night!".

*...A pokemon fan-club? I'm sure they had one in Kanto too.* he thought while glancing over towards his pocket where his pokeball was being kept. As usual, the trainer's Gastly had been put in its ball to ensure that people would not get scared without reason. Ghost-type pokemon usually had a bad reputation..for eating away dreams and giving nightmares, as well as stealing life-energy and using it as a food-source.

"..Excuse me." the Trainer said. He had already opened the door to the house and was getting ready to step inside. In the room he put his eyes on stood one, large table with about five people sitting around it. They seemed to be playing a card game of some kind..in any case. The room seemed fairly simple..like the exterior, it was completely made out of wood. Only strange thing was; Pokemon decorations were EVERYWHERE. You could not look in a direction and not see a Pikachu or Charmander doll somewhere. Three of the people sitting at the table looked up in the direction of the door, the other two obviously too obsessed with their card-game. "Hello there! Welcome to the Pokemon Club..is there anything we can help you with?" one of the individuals said, a man roughly in his thirties.

"Uuh..yea..sorry for barging in like this..but I wondered if you had some kind of washing machine or something-..I uh..kinda got lost in the storm last night.". the Trainer said with some hesitation in his voice.

One of the other individuals, a girl this time and also in her thirties, replied "..Oh! You went out in that storm? I heard on the news it was pretty severe..trees getting struck by lightning. I even heard someone had to go to the hospital because he was in the vicinity of a lightning strike.". the man who spoke earlier nodded in acknowledgement. "Well..anyway, we have a washing machine upstairs but it'll cost you-.." "Cost him? He went through a horrible storm last night, cut him some slack will you." the women said, interrupting him.

"..I uh..I don't mind to pay something if it's not too m-.." the trainer tried to say, but he too got interrupted by the woman. "Nonsense. Maybe you should get a shower too..wait, just a question. Do you collect pokemon?".

"Uuhm..yeah.." The trainer tried to avoid this subject as much as possible..He knew how intense those pokefans could be and he wouldn't want to be stuck here for the rest of the week. "I'm uh..a pokemon trainer. Sort of.".

"A pokemon trainer?" the five all said at the same time. Looks like this got the attention of the other two as well. The trainer scratched the back of his head and tried to estimate how bad this situation actually was... "..What kind of pokemon do you have?" "It's a fire type right? They are reaaaaally kawaaaaai!" "No I bet it's a grass type pokemon." "Tell me it's a fire type!". *I knew this wasn't a smart idea...* the trainer thought to himself. All of the five pokemon maniacs were now bombarding him with questions. One even went so far as to rush over to him and pull him over to a chair next to the table.

"I uh...have a ghost-type pokemon.". The trainer said with a hesitant tone...carefully glancing over the group..He knew what kind of reaction this would get him..and indeed it did.

...

...

...Complete silence.

"...It's an...uuh...Gastly..His name is Rei."

Even more silence.

After two complete minutes of complete and utter silence, one of the pokefans finally spoke up. "...Oh. Okay. Well..uh..there's a washing machine upstairs in the washing room, and there's a bathroom two doors further on the right. ...Uh..Yell if you need something..I..we guess?" The slightly older man said.

Like what was said before, Ghost-types really weren't all that popular. Regardless, the Trainer was used to it and without hesitation he made his way towards the staircase, than up the stair and towards the washing machine. He opened a door which kinda looked like a laundry room and got inside..taking off his clothes and stuffing it into the washing machine and turning it on. He didn't like the idea of being in a random house naked..but it was better than catching a fever or the likes. Grabbing a towel from a washing rack, he made his way towards the bathroom, looking forward to a long, warm, shower.

Several blocks from the pokemon fanclub, at the local pokécenter, the girl trainer was sitting in a square-like chair with the color of ripe Pecha berries. In front of her, was a small fireplace, but it wasn't lit, since they never did that during the daytime. The pokécenter was thriving with happy laughter and loud noises, trainers from far and wide gathered at pokemon centers in great numbers, especially since its so much needed service was free. It wasn't an hour ago since the girl trainer had stumbled inside and recognized where she was. After countless headbeatings she gave to herself for sleeping under a tree in a storm after only now discovering that she had been only a few streets away from a comfortable and FREE place to sleep and eat at, she had checked in with the local nurse Joy for a room and most importantly, breakfast.

About 20 minutes ago, after breakfast, she had given her old trusted pokemon in its pokeball to the nurse to heal up. The nurse had given her a questioning look when she handed her a pokeball so old and covered in scrapes and scratches, but she had just looked her straight back in her eyes, making it quite clear she wasn't intending to answer randomly thrown questions about personal matters. The nurses desk bell rang to alert trainers to come and pick up their now healed pokemon. The girl got out of her seat and turned around to face the counter, there was already forming a line of trainers in front of the counter, all eager to head out to whatever places they wanted to go to. More trainers rushed to the line, laughing and loudly talking with friends. The girl trainer seemed to be one of the last in line, only 4 more trainers were behind her.

After another agonizingly long wait, it was finally her turn. The nurse was sitting in front of the counter, bend over a long list of what would most likely be a list of trainer ID's and the pokeballs that were attached to those ID's.

"Next please." The nurse said calmly, still skimming the list in her hands.

The girl trainer stepped forward and placed her hands on the counter.

"Trainer ID?" Asked the nurse, finally looking up.

"34939" The girl said softly.

The nurse looked down on her list again, flipping over a page. Her finger went over the numbers till she encountered the one she was looking for.

"Found it, let me look it up for you." The nurse said with a cheerful smile.

The nurse turned to her right, facing a computer with teleport function at the side. The nurse was typing away something on screen and touched a series of digital buttons on a new touchscreen before hitting the enter button. The small teleport machine attached to the computer made a low buzzing sound, and a thin thread of blue light erupted from the top into a glass cylinder case, it cracked a few times, almost making it look like there was a tiny piece of lightning trapped in the complex machine. Then it turned purple.. red.. then finally pink. The nurse pushed a green button on her keyboard and the buzzing became high-pitched. The beam of pink light cracked and formed a ball shape. The nurse gave her approval of several settings displayed on her screen, the pink light disappeared, but the ball shape remained, becoming solid after a few seconds of waiting. The old pokeball she had delivered earlier looked much the same as when she had it earlier this morning, but the girl knew her pokemon had been cared for properly.

"There you go, healthy and hearty, just like it should be." Said the nurse gleefully.

The glass cylinder opened with the push of another button and the nurse picked the old pokeball up to hand it to its trainer. The girl gladly accepted the pokeball and immediately stuffed it in her backpack.

"Thanks for the room and breakfast, of course for healing my pokemon as well."

"It's not something you have to thank me for really, I'm just the local nurse who happens to be working here." The nurse said with a friendly smile.

"Now, off you go! Kids shouldn't be wasting time inside on such a beautiful day, right?" The nurse winked.

"Right." The girl said, giving a single nod before she turned around and ran off into the light past the glass automatic doors of the pokécenter...

"There! All refreshed!" The trainer said with a smile on his face. After just taking his long anticipated, warm shower the Trainer put his hand on a relatively small valve..turning the flow of water off. He had a slight idea that he had been showering for at least an hour, but that was how long it took to get all that mud off his body. It was literally everywhere and the dirt under his nails and in his hair was especially difficult to scrub away. He stepped out of the shower cabin and grabbed a towel, ruffling it through his curly brown hair. "A pokemon club in Hoenn, who would've guessed." He said to himself. He walked up to a mirror with a sink underneath and started drying the other parts of his body as well. He was clearly inspecting the sink too..hoping to find a certain item. Even though he was a boy, he had relatively long and ruffled curly hair. And he didn't really like the feeling of tangled hair at all. "..They must have a comb here ri-..oh, wait!" . Just as he was about to finish his sentence, he saw a brown comb lying near the edge of the sink. He grabbed it and glided it through his ruffled hair, and though it remained ruffled to some extent, it looked ruffled in a good and neat way.

After drying himself off completely he wrapped the towel around his waist and unlocked the door to the bathroom. Downstairs he could hear the five pokefans laughing and what not.. he guessed they were probably playing their card game again. The incident earlier didn't seem to hurt him much. He was used to this kind of attention and saw some reason in it as well..I mean, it's not that normal to see a boy walking around with a ghost-type pokemon after all...Well..except for those really crazy mediums and wanna-be wizards, he thought.

He set a foot into the hallway and closed the door behind him. Just as he closed the door he noticed the wrinkles he had gotten on his hands due to the long shower he had taken..it sort of reminded him of the old spirit mediums that were all too common in Lavender Town and smiled to himself for a moment..but that smile quickly transformed in a frown.

"I miss home.." he whispered to himself. He had a purpose and reason for coming to Hoenn, but he could not stop the feeling of wanting to go home. He walked up to the washing room and opened the door. It looked like his clothes were just about finished. He walked over to the machine and opened it up. *..Now just gotta put them in a dry cleaner.*.

He inspected the room, trying to determine whether or not there was a dry cleaner at all. Luckily for him, there was..but on a very inconvenient spot; Behind the washing machine.

"..Oh..that's great." He said to himself in a soft tone while placing the palm of his hand against his forehead out of frustration. "..Wait..Is that a gap?" he climbed on top of the washing machine and indeed! he saw a tiny bit of space between the two machines, roughly fifty centimeter..and in his mind, maybe just big enough to fit his clothes through so he could stuff them into the dry cleaner! He made his attempt. "One sock! Okay..now the other one..". He got on his knees, reaching his arm out into the gap with the other sock in his hand. It was going good so far! Just a few more things and he'd have all of his clothes put into the dry cleaner...then suddenly, he heard someone coming upstairs. The house was quite squeaky due to the wood, so whenever someone was walking up or down a stair, it was like the entire house could hear it. All he was wearing at the moment was a towel and a relatively short one at that. And he did -not- want to be seen wearing something comparable to a mini-skirt by a complete stranger; even worse ..a pokefan.

Before putting the rest of his clothes inside, He retrieved whatever items he needed or shouldn't get wet. He lifted his leg into the air, closing the door behind him with his foot. Hopefully the impact the door made would scare anyone that tried to enter away. The footsteps got closer and closer...until finally, they passed and seemed to head for another room. The trainer wiped the sweat off his forehead and let out a sigh..now just to wait for his clothes to dry, he thought.

It took about ten minutes before the machine started beeping, signaling that the clothes inside were dry. Just as he managed to stuff his clothes inside, he managed to get them outside and without further hesitation put them on so that he could get on with his journey...he was REALLY starving now, even more so than earlier!

He said a friendly goodbye to the pokefans and thanked them for their hospitality. Their reaction was just like before..but the trainer was happy enough; he managed to get a shower and clean clothes. "..Now! Let's go and find that restaurant, Rei." he said with a confident tone. It was like he forgot the while badge affair entirely but this was not at all true...it kept stinging his mind and he still had some hope in his heart that maybe someone else than the sailor picked it up..He just hoped someone didn't steal it.

Regardless of that; His pokemon was just as exhausted as he was..Though he was a tough Gastly, or so his trainer would've liked to believe, fighting five pokemon at the same time really wasn't a good idea. *Maybe they have a pokemon center somewhere in this city..they usually have good food and it's free as well..wanna go there, Rei?* he said while glancing over in the direction of his pocket, where the Gastly's pokeball was being kept. The trainer also noticed that the city was really getting crowded now. The sounds of ships arriving and leaving could constantly be noticed due to the horns they signaled; similar to the ship he arrived with. He looked at his surroundings and he seemed to be close to the main road with..-..something that resembled a pokemart to his right? He ran over to the entrance and a big smile appeared on his face. It reminded him of a school trip he once undertook as a kid..he went to Celadon City with his class and even now the huge skyscrapers and stores of Celadon City still amaze him. He went up to the glass doors and they shifted open; If someone knew where a pokemon center was, it'd be these guys.

In comparison to the rest of the city, the mart was relatively empty. Usually this was the time for trainers to get their pokemon healed and revived, so he guessed that was where everyone was. "Excuse me." He said while walking up to the counter "..I'm not really from this region, can you tell me where the pokemon center is?" a guy behind the counter turned around and glanced over at the trainer. Apparently he was doing something related to papers..the trainer couldn't figure out what though. Anyway, he gave a quick response, obviously hoping to get back to whatever the guy was doing. "..Uh..yea, it's behind this building actually..walk to the right in the direction of the main road and then follow the path north, take a sharp turn to your left the second you can and it should be pretty clear from there on..it's..uh..well, a pokemon center. Can't miss it.".

The trainer looked around at all of the items the pokemart sold..most of them were pretty standard..the same ones they sold in Kanto, but there were a few exceptions. "..Oh, thanks a lot! By the way..what does a potion cost here?" the trainer asked "..That'd be 250 pokebucks.".

"Want me to get one for you?" the guy behind the counter asked. "Yes please..". The trainer grabbed his backpack and opened it up, grabbing his wallet which was safely stored in a "secret space" on the back of his..backpack. What he found wasn't good though. *..Oh..you gotta be kidding me..* he thought to himself. All of his pokédollars had gotten wet during the rainstorm and were pretty much useless. He wasn't that rich but he made sure he had enough for whatever he needed during the journey! *Wait! Maybe I still have some Pokecoins..uh..one hundred..two hundred.. two hundred and fifty..there.* He put the coins on the counter and let out a sigh. He didn't have that many coins with him in the first place..in total he'd have about one hundred and twenty pokebucks now. The guy behind the counter placed the potion in a plastic bag and gave it to the trainer. "Here you go, be careful out there and have a nice day." The guy said before turning around and continuing his work.

"Uh..yeah..you as well..Bye!" the Trainer grabbed the plastic bag and put it inside the front slot of his backpack before closing it off again. He turned around and headed for the glass doors. *Could this day get any worse?* The trainer thought to himself. At least now however, he knew where to go, and to the pokemon center he went!

It had been dark inside the pokécenter, so the bright light of the sun stunned the girl trainer when she ran out. She squeezed her eyes shut, momentarily blinded. She had been running in a straight path out of the building, but hadn't considered the light outside blinding her like this. It was almost inevitable, in the few seconds she had her eyes closed, she ran into something soft with full speed.

"AAAAAAHHH!"

The force of the blow blew whatever she ran into against the road and knocked her back on the ground as well. She heard a male voice loudly cursing under his breath. Lifting a hand above her eyes, she could partly see what she had hit. It was a guy, probably a teen or a little past that age from what she could see, the sun was still too bright for her eyes who hadn't adjusted to the change of light yet.

"I-I'm terribly sorry!" The girl said almost stuttering in nervousness.

This was embarrassing, she should've known better than to run out of a door without looking who might behind it. She punished herself silently in her head, her clumsiness still had the upper hand. Finally her eyes started to adjust, she could make out the boy who was lying on the ground, curled brown hair and slightly dusty clothing. In a single moment she spotted the trainers backpack, which contents had spilled over the ground, she could clearly see a pokeball between the items that rolled out, the guy was a trainer. She was as quickly on her feet as she had been knocked over, rushing over to the boy still on the ground.

"Oh dear Latias.. l-let me help you pick that up for you." She said, smiling apologetic.

Now that she had a better look at the guy... didn't he look... kind of, familiar..?

The trainer was just about to arrive at the pokemon center. He could clearly see the giant, colorful building sticking out from the rest now. He couldn't wait to get inside and get something to eat..His stomach was grumbling like a bear that just woke from his winter sleep. "Almost there Rei." He said in a soft tone. "Just a few more steps and it's breakfast time!" a smile quickly started to appear on his face...as well as a tendril of drool that started to run down his lip.

With a confident look he approached the pokemon's glass doors, waiting for them to open...then suddenly!

*KAPLOW!*


End file.
